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Orange Peel Morris Dancers |
Jane and Doug invited Orange Peel Morris to wassail their apple trees on their 'Hamden House' property on the outskirts of Orangeville. It was a fine night on 2002 January 17 — clear, -10°, a bit breezy, with a bit of flurrying. Cold enough to want to dance, not watch; and too cold for instruments not meant to be played outside below freezing!
We began by singing "Please To See The King", presenting Jane and Doug and their guests with a substitute for a wren, and singing:
PLEASE TO SEE THE KING
Joy, health, love, and peace be all here in this place
By your leave, we will sing concerning our King
Our King is well dressed, in silks of the best
In ribbons so rare, no king can compare
We have traveled many miles, over hedges and stiles
In search of our King, unto you we bring
Old Christmas is past, Twelfth Night is the last
And we bid you adieu, great joy to the new.
___________
The wren was the king of the birds. This is from Pembrokeshire in South Wales, commemorating the wren-killing on St. Steven's Day, Dec 26.
And then, it being cold, we danced Ockington-in-the-snow, which warmed the dancers, but not the bare-handed musicians!
Ockington-in-the-snow as part of our Wassail at the 'Hamden House Orchard'.
These instruments were not meant to be played outside on a January's wintery
evening!
Mark then sang the Carhampton Wassail, which he had seen Jim Binding sing on 1994 January 17th at the Butchers Arms in Carhampton, Somerset, England. Jim is only the fourth singer of this wassail since the Second World War, the song being passed down from one singer to the next. Carhampton folk claim to have sung this wassail continuously for more than 250 years. Only somewhat following tradition, we sang the wassail, put cider-soaked toast on the tree boughs (to bring good spirits), and then threw snow-balls through the tree (to frighten away bad spirits). ... no firing of guns so close to town! ...
Carhampton Wassailing Song:
“Old apple tree, we wassail thee,
And hope that thou wilt bear,
For the Lord doth know where we shall be
Come apples another year.
To bloom well, and to bear well,
So happy let us be.
Let everyone take off their hat,
And shout out to the old apple tree!”
Shouted by everyone:
“Old apple tree, we wassail thee,
And hope that thou wilt bear
Hatfuls, capfuls, three bushel bagfuls
And a little heap under the stairs.”
“Three cheers for the old apple tree!”
“Hip! Hip! — Hooray!”
More dancing (Poston), and then we flamed the cake — or rather, tried to flame the cake. Len skewered it on his officer's sword from The War of 1812. We poured liberal amounts of brandy over it, but ... (It flamed very well inside later on — and the brandy it had soaked up certainly didn't hurt how it tasted!)
That was enough to convince us to retreat inside Jane and Doug's fine house for their wonderful hospitality. They provided cider of various sorts (English and Canadian, mulled and hard — all consumed!), cheeses (again, English and Canadian), and many other goodies.
And so we sang inside, going through various seasonal songs, led by John, in his fine style:
The Boars Head Carol
Deck The Hall
Gloucestershire Wassail
Gower Wassail
Here We Come A-wassailing
The Holly and The Ivy (the old tune, sung with vigour!)
Please To See The King
King Arthur Had Three Sons (because it's a fine song, though not a wassailing song ...)
Past Three A Clock
We Wish You a Merry Christmas
The Wren
John leading us in fine style.
Jane and Doug (in the background), and guests, dogs, and more singers.
Robin played his (non-English, non-Morris) bagpipes — warming us up for the up-coming haggis events in our area!
Trying on kit — a future Morris dancer???
We hope to make this an annual event. We'll work on the songs, getting ourselves into better harmony. We'll have to figure out how to cope with playing musical instruments outside in winter time — it was a good thing the night wasn't too cold nor too windy! And we could even weave some mumming into the event.
Please be gentle on our (mis)appropriations of various traditions ... Perhaps this will be the start of something here!
Wassail to all, and especially to Jane and Doug for their generosity and hospitality! "To next year!"
yed his (non-English, non-Morris) bagpipes — warming us up for the up-coming haggis events in our area!
Proof in May — one of the best flowering seasons ever for these trees!
For more information, please contact the Orange Peel Squire: 
Corrections and Comments to
Updated: 2003 January 18